ADA, OKLAHOMA - The Lady Rangers traveled to Ada, OK for their first GAC conference game against East Central this Thursday Nov. 30th. Both teams had no losses before facing each other. The Lady Rangers fought every minute of the game and won the game 74-58. That makes the Rangers advance to 7-0 and the Tigers 3-1 in the season. 

Leading scorers for the Rangers: Faith Simpson with 23 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals; Camille Thomas with 13pts, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and a block; Carly Craig with 18 pts (4-9 3-pointers), and 3 steals.

Leading scorers for the Tigers: J. Weiberg with 22 pts (7-14 3pts) and M. Crusoe with 17pts,  14 reb, and 3 steals.  The Lady Rangers out rebounded the Tigers 45-31. 

1st Quarter 

The Lady Rangers started hot with an 8-0 run to open the game. East Central's J. Weiberg hit a three for the Tigers first points of the game. Carly Craig gets her first foul and Weiberg makes one free throw out of two. S. Harrod scores her first points of the game and the score is 10-4 now in favor of Northwestern. M. Crusoe makes a three for the Tigers and it brings them closer to the Rangers at 10-7. Nikya Orange adds her name on the board with 1:49 left in the quarter with her first points of the game. Paige Scott buried her first three of the game, but the Tigers answered with a last second layup and the score after the first quarter was 15-9 in favor of the Rangers.

The Lady Rangers started  the 2nd quarter with a foul and the Tigers got a basket on the following possession and made it a closer game 11-15. ECU's Weiberg scored a three and Faith Simpson answered with a basket from the paint. Halfway into the quarter the score was 20-16 with the Lady Rangers up. The Tigers guard Payne hits a big corner three and they are behind by only 1 point now 20-19. Both teams were struggling with turnovers and missed shots. Weiberg gets another three and now the Tigers are up by 2 points for their first lead of the game. Carly Craig answered though with a corner three back to back including a last second three before the shot clock buzzer and putting her team back in the lead by one point 23-22 and the following possession makes another buzzer beater three to close out the first half 26-22. 

3rd quarter 

Simpson started the second half with another steal of the game. After a couple unsuccessful shots between the Tigers and Rangers Carly Craig was able to stop the scoring drought by knocking down a three pointer and drawing a foul for a 4 point play by making her 3rd three of the game. The following possession F. Simpson added two points by making her put back shot. Weiberg answered with her fourth  three of the game for the Tigers as she continued to keep the Tigers in the game. Couple possessions later E. West added her name on the board by scoring a three for ECU. Northwestern led 42-33 through three quarters.

4th quarter 

The Tigers started the 4th quarter with a 5-0 run. F. Simpson breaks the Tigers run with a bucket in the paint. Weiberg scores from the logo for the tigers and now the rangers are up by only 3 pts 44-41. Carly Craig tries to answer with another three but misses it. F. Simpson with another basket off the offensive rebound extending the Ranger lead, she now has 12pts and 5 rebounds. Havens of East Central hit a three and cut the Lady Rangers lead to 2 points. F. Simpson answers with back-to-back shots in the paint leading the team with 16 pts. Carly Craig with her fourth three of the game putting the rangers with a 6 point lead. Another three from Weiberg makes the Rangers call a timeout as their lead shrinks to four.. C. Thomas now with a double-double (11 points and 12 rebounds). F. Simpson once again with a bucket and a three point play had the Lady Rangers in front with 1:50 left in the game. Payton Jones added four free throws on the board making the lead 13 pts for the Rangers. The Lady Rangers finished out strong on the free throws making 11 consecutive to seal the victory and won the game by 16 points 74-58. 

Northwestern will be back in action on Saturday afternoon with a 1:00 PM tip-off against Oklahoma Baptist with a court dedication game in honor of Barton and Battisti.